Now that the new season is about to start I wanted to share two drills that Robert Morris Head Coach Derek Schooley shared with me. As with all drills, these should be run at a high tempo to ensure players are practicing at game speed. Both are full ice drills that run from both sides simultaneously.

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This is a really well written and thought out article on how to deal with the end of your playing career by Jamie McKinven, from the site GlassAndOut.com

Typically, I like to post information for ice practice, but this is something that we all can help our players deal with each season. I’ve seen it up close myself, and it is sometimes very difficult for young players to deal with moving on from something they have spent years trying to reach their playing goals. Give it a read, and also check out Jamie’s site, it really is packed with great content from a former player.

There is nothing more terrifying than the concept of “The End.” While the end can mean many things, negative or positive, it is the former that is often first manifested in our minds. We are conditioned to fear and prepare for the worst. The end of a path. The end of a dream. The end of a life.

In hockey, like in all sports, the end is an inevitable certainty. There is no way around it. Whether you finish up in midget, junior, college or pro, your career is going to end and you’re going to have to find a way to pick up the pieces and move on. The reality is, when that final game comes and goes, most aren’t prepared to say goodbye and take that next step. Most aren’t able to transition and see the value in what they have accomplished and how the skills they’ve acquired and lessons they have learned can continue to pave the way to future success.

One thing I learned after 25 years in the game of hockey is that the end means something different for everyone, no matter what level you reach or how long you play. I’ve seen kids with two years of junior experience bawl their eyes out and fall into deep depression when the lights go out on their career. I’ve also seen 14-year pros, with NHL experience, shrug their shoulders, walk away and never look back. It’s important to refrain from assumptions. Just because someone retires with millions in the bank and Stanley Cup rings on their fingers doesn’t mean they will take it any easier than someone who finishes up after 12 junior hockey games, or vice versa. What I’ve learned is that everyone is different and the end of a dream affects everyone in different ways.

I’ve seen players grind through a career, suffering horrific, life-changing injuries; lose families, fortunes and their sense of self-worth. With growing awareness of the lingering and debilitating effects of concussions, we’ve seen an uprising of courage from former players to speak about their post-career struggles, tearing down the walls of stigma. Players like the late Steve Montador, who took up the fight to create awareness for mental health, and his friend Dan Carcillo who dropped the guarded, tough-guy image to open up in an emotional revelation, have shed much needed light on the struggles faced by players when their career ends. These guys are heroes. True warriors.

While the weight of the end hits everyone at every level differently, there are common themes and lessons that can help lessen the blow of reality. Things that benefit everyone while dealing with major change and transition in life.

Here are five important things to remember as you prepare for “The End”:

You’re Not Alone

The most important step to climbing out of a dark place is to reach out for support. Too often, especially in hockey, a sport governed by an unwritten code and represented by a certain image, players will conceal their wounds, both physically and emotionally, and try to “tough it out.” You don’t want to show weakness, so it’s better to suffer in silence or use other coping methods. You don’t want to go down this road. If you’re suffering, reach out and get the support you need before it snowballs into something you can’t get out of. Be courageous and drop your guard. You’re not the first athlete to admit they need help and, hopefully, you will pave the way for others to feel safe to do so.

Recognize the Transferrable Skills

I touched on the value of hockey players and their transferable skills in another article (“Hockey to the Workplace: 10 Transferable Competencies”). Whatever level you reach in hockey, you have learned some invaluable life lessons and acquired a transferable skill-set. From the value of perseverance to proactivity in the workplace, hockey provides a strong base of skills and values to build off of as you transition from one stage in life to the next.

Understand the Value in Your Accomplishments

One of the issues I had during my playing career was that I never recognized the value in what I was doing. This is mostly because players are coached and bred to never be satisfied and always reach for something more. It wasn’t until I retired, took a step back and decided to write a book, that I began to see the intrinsic value in everything I had accomplished. The biggest value I was able to take away from my career was the relationships I built and the experiences I had, both good and bad. Most of my best friends in life have come from the hockey world. Hockey paid for my university degree. Hockey allowed me to travel the world and experience different cultures. All of these amazing positives dwarfed the fact that I never made it to the NHL and that I was often a healthy scratch in college. Always look to the positive value in anything you do to help you understand the purpose.

You’re Somebody’s Hero

I recently spoke to a mother of a child with down syndrome who spends her Saturdays during the winter in cold rinks watching single-A bantam hockey games. They don’t have a relative playing in the game. One of the players is a classmate of the child with down syndrome; someone with a kind heart and a love for the game of hockey. For this child this player is a hero. The player will likely never play beyond the age of 16 or 17, likely never reaching a level higher than rep hockey. When they do hang up the blades, they will see a smiling face in a small crowd in a cold rink on a Saturday.

After hearing this story, it made me realize that no matter how far you go in hockey or in life, there are always people out there counting on you, rooting for you and caring about you. You don’t have to play in the NHL to be somebody’s hero and when you stop playing the game, it doesn’t mean you stop being the hero.

Take Your Time

Most players I talk to, and this was always my biggest problem, are always worried about an imaginary clock ticking away on their window of opportunity, their career and their life. In hockey, there is an obsession with this clock. People put deadlines on everything. Parents often say, “If Johnny doesn’t make AAA by minor bantam, he’ll never reach his dreams.” There is an obsession over the OHL, WHL and QMJHL drafts. Parents will say, “If Johnny doesn’t get drafted, he’ll never reach his dreams.” And, when you’re done playing, there is a pressure to hurry up and be instantaneously successful in something else. For me it was, “OK, you have your degree so go out and get a high-paying job right away.” When it didn’t happen like that, I was devastated. I felt like a complete failure all over again. First, my hockey career failed and now I can’t even get a decent job. The clock was ticking and I was a slave to it.

The reality is that the clock is a farce. If you don’t make AAA by minor bantam, you can still reach your dreams. If you don’t get drafted in the OHL, you can still reach your dreams. If you don’t get a great job within a year after your playing career ends, you are normal. Don’t rush. Most mistakes in life are made in haste. You probably didn’t decide to make your lifelong dream to be a hockey player in the first moments of your life and you shouldn’t expect your next step to be any different.

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I received this drill from Wally Kozak and thought I would share it with our readers. This is an excellent drill to work with the defensemen to handle the forecheck pressure during a NZ regroup play. It also gives you the opportunity to have your forwards work on the teams NZ forecheck system. The drill is continuous back and forth. After a few rotations you can blow the whistle and have the forwards attack the defensemen 2v2 and then swap in the other defensemen.

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Picked this one up watching former NHL player Tony Horacek running practice for our 18U AAA team. Drill runs from both ends at the same time (the video shows only one side to make it easier to see). Watch the timing and skate hard.

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Here are two drills I received from my Canadian friends to work on 1 on 1 skills. Typically 1 on 1 drills are run with the defensemen defending the rush, but you can also have the forwards defend the rush to work on their defensive skills, because at some point in a game you will need a forward to pick up for a pinching or rushing defenseman and that forward may need to defend the counter attack.

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While looking at the stats for views on the site, I noticed a lot of action every day in the Defensemen section. To give you more choices, I’ve added 16 new drills, that my defensive coach runs throughout the season when we split up by group. Hopefully you find these useful in building the skills of your defensemen.

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I got this drill from a friend in Colorado who watched the Avalanche run it during practice. I used it last night at practice and I liked the flow and tempo of the drill. Be sure to have the forwards stay wide so the defenseman has time to perform an escape move before the second pass. Also, make sure the D skates hard to jump into the rush.

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My team is eleven games into our season and I haven’t been happy with our competitive instincts. I feel we are not winning enough 50/50 pucks and not winning enough loose pucks. Over the past few weeks I’ve started running drills in practice specifically designed to work on these skills and as of today, I’m happy with the results I see from the players. All of these drills can be considered Small Area Games and I will post them in that section of the site for future reference.

The team really gets competitive with this drill. I split the team into two groups and they compete against each other. The action gets pretty intense at times and really teaches the players how to win puck battles.

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Coach Schooley brings us another drill designed to work on breakout passing and 1 on 1 play.
Drill runs from both ends at the same time. Make sure that the defensemen work the reverse pass at game speed and are positionally sound. D2 should hold the front of the net with his skates up ice until the reverse pass is made and then he should sprint to the puck, get his head up and make the breakout pass.

Coach Schooley is the head coach at Division 1 Robert Morris University and his Colonial team is the defending Atlantic Hockey Champions. If you are interested in more information on Coach Schooley, you can visit the RMU Athletics page or follow him on Twitter at @DerekSchooley .

Coach Schooley has a terrific DVD to help develop defensemen. Every coach should have a copy of this DVD, it is really well designed and thought out. I have a copy of it myself and use many of the drills with my defensemen every year.